The Deep Sort Of Lonely [open]

[Aiko]

It was a dark and stormy night which melted into a dull and rainy day.

Aiko’s clothes were still clinging wetly to her pale skin. Her untidy mop of dark hair was plastered to her scalp, her bangs stuck to her goose-pimpled forehead. Water dripped from the rounded tip of her nose, and no matter how often she tried to rub it away, more trickled down from her hair and back to the tip of her nose. Her teeth chattered furiously as she huddled up into herself, trying very hard not to look at the sinister burn mark that marred the floor of the cave. Her cold, clammy fingers were jammed under her armpits as she tried to warm them up. She was actually wearing her clogs, just so her feet wouldn’t have to touch the cold stone floor of the cave. It felt like the warmth inside her was being leeched into the greedy rock. The only part of her that felt warm was the corner of one eye, were a hot wetness was gathering on her sticky lashes.

As the blackness outside the cave turned to a dull gray, and the lightning flashes and thunder roars grew less frequent, Aiko finally dared to uncurl from her little ball of sopping skin and clothes and crawl on her hands and knees to the cave entrance. She blinked blearily, and some of the warm wetness fell out of her eyes. The tears carved little trails of heat down the girl’s numbing cheeks. Raindrops fell from the lip of the cave, and little rivers streamed down the sides of the rock to pool in little depressions on the stone floor, but beyond the cave it was still raining very hard. The wind wasn’t gusting like it used to be, but Aiko couldn’t imagine anyone being out there in the wet. And then, she was the only one taking shelter in this cave.

The thought made her feel very, very lonely.

But this wasn’t the normal kind of lonely, where she just wanted somebody to talk to and she’d feel all better. This was the deep sort of lonely. There, in the cave, she felt like the only thing alive in the whole wide world. Not only that, though, but when she got out of the cave, there wouldn’t be any home to run to. There wouldn’t be anybody. There was only going to be Aiko, and maybe some people would be around, but they would ignore her, like they usually did unless she tried talking to them. She was the only person in her life that had any influence right then. She had had Kardowin-sama and Malko-chan, but she had gotten lost from them again, and they still hadn’t found her. She had had Kikan-san, but she had left him because he was better off without her. And before those people, she had had Mama and Papa. But Mama and Papa were dead now. She knew they were, knew they had to be. Otherwise they would have come for her. Maybe Kardowin-sama and Malko-chan and Kikan-san were dead now, too. And maybe Aiko would be the next one to die, all alone.

The tears were coming down like the rain again. Scrunching her face up, Aiko tried to wipe the droplets out of her eyes, but they just kept coming, the only parts of her that had any warmth left. She did her best not to cry, but when the deep lonely sat in her heart like a dark stain, like the frightful burn mark on the cave floor, she couldn’t stop the flow of tears.

[sahoni]

"When will this crazy dream end." The boy grumbled as his necklace jingled. The iron flashed in the thunder and he ran into the cave oblivious to his necklaces warning.
"I just wanna wake up. In my nice bed, warm..." He sighed heavily. "I just wanna go home"

[Aiko]

The girl’s hand came away from her eyes damp with the warm, salty teardrops. Blinking blearily, Aiko looked out into the hazy gray world of rain beyond the cave. It was so dreary and lonesome and there was nothing there at all.

Except there was. A silhouette materialized in the gloom beyond the deeper darkness of the cave, and barely reacting in time, Aiko scrambled to the side of her little burrow and pressed herself against the rain-riddled stone wall of the cave. Somebody, or something, was heading straight for her!

And then a boy was hurrying into the cave. Aiko could tell it was a boy, even though what little light there was came from outside, and was dim and watery. Her eyes had long since adjusted to the dimness of the cave. Now her light brown eyes were wide, even though tears were still gathered in the corners, as she stared at this unexpected visitor. She heard him speak, and at first she thought he was addressing her, until she realized that he wasn’t even looking in her direction. Didn’t he notice that she was already here, already in the cave, or was he just ignoring her? If the latter was the case, she was used to being ignored by most people. People seemed to like ignoring the poor, the pained, the wretched, seemed to like carrying on with their lives as if everything was fine and peaceful. The boy was probably one of these kinds of people.

What if he simply hadn’t noticed her? Well, Aiko couldn’t help sniffing, because her nose was full of a cold and dripping with rainwater and tears and boogers. She slid down the rough wall, trying to keep as far away as possible from the boy. He probably didn’t want her company, anyway, but she didn’t want to have to go back out in the rain!

[sahoni]

Hearing the sniff he sighed.
"Thank the great spirit... a NORMAL person." He let off a goofy wide toothy smile.
Then he looked at her another strike of lightning showed he better to his eyes.
A flash of concern flashed over his eyes.
The girl was crying.
His problems could wait.
"What's wrong?" he said handing her his surprisingly dry vest to keep her warm his golden yellow eyes gave an aura a warmth and friendliness.

[Aiko]

Hearing the boy’s voice again, Aiko turned to peer at him through her watery eyes. His cheerful smile seemed extremely out of place, and the girl didn’t know how to react to it. She just stared at him dumbly, not even flinching as lightning crackled outside of the cave. The sounds and flashes had been so frequent through the night, and Aiko was so very cold and stiff, that she didn’t have the will to react to them anymore. But the boy reacted in an odd way, looking concerned at the noise. Aiko didn’t have the will to puzzle over such a strange person. She snuffled again and pulled her knees up close to her chest.

She was about to put her head down on her knees when she noticed the boy handing something to her. Aiko blinked and wiped away her tears to see that he was offering her a piece of fabric, a coat or something of the sort. The girl’s softening eyes looked up into the boy’s face, wondering at this strange offering. The girl hesitantly took the fabric and placed it over her narrow shoulders. It was surprisingly warm, especially to her cold body, and she snuggled into the warm cloth. She pressed her nose against it. It smelled a little damp and musty; sort of like wet dog, she thought, but she liked the smell and closed her eyes for a moment.

Instead of responding to the boy’s question, Aiko mumbled, [pink]“Thank you.”[/pink] After a moment, she looked up and whispered with surprising honesty, [pink]“I was feeling cold and wet and sorry for myself, but that’s bad, so I won’t talk about it.”[/pink] Huddled under the boy’s vest, the young teen peered at him through her sticky eyelashes. [pink] “What about you?”[/pink] A million other questions, not the least of which was “Why are you out in the rain?” plagued her mind, but she thought it would be poor etiquette to ask.

[sahoni]

"To tell you the truth, I don't really know...He scratched his head and sat down cross legged.
"I don't even know how I got here. I was walking home from school there was a flash and then BAM! Next thing I know I'm being poked by a old guy on bird feet with a very anti-social attitude."
He sighed and shook of in a very canine like fashion.
"My name is Sahoni." he said like he was a new guy at an AA meeting.
"And I'm lost."
Unseen to him a haze white wolf the size of an ox appeared and whispered something in his ear.
"This place has felt great evil..." he said

[Aiko]

More than anything else, really, she was soothed by the sound of another’s voice. It alleviated her loneliness a teeny tiny bit, anyway. The boy had a strange accent, she noticed, but she was feeling too miserable to puzzle over it much. When he sat cross-legged, Aiko imitated him, even though the stone floor of the cave was cold. She could feel it through her thin, damp clothing. Aiko listened to the boy attentively, even though she was shivering and snuffling occasionally. She couldn’t understand much of what the boy was saying, but still she listened.

[pink]“Sa-ho-ni,”[/pink] the girl repeated, trying out the boy’s name. Aiko blinked as she tried to smile at him, but her lips were too cold and her teeth were too chattery. [pink]“I’m Aiko,”[/pink] she told him between shivers. [pink]“I’m lost, too.”[/pink] She paused, having nothing else to say, and glanced away, looking out at the rain that still pattered beyond the cave’s entrance. Everything out there was a grayish haze. Her light brown eyes turned back to Sahoni. Then, not sure whether or not it was okay to do so, the young teen scooted herself across the floor, getting a little closer to the boy. When she was still about five feet away, she stopped, looking up at the boy from through her lashes.

[pink]“Sahoni-san,”[/pink] she began, her voice quavering and uncertain, and not only because she was cold and wet and miserable, [pink]“do you think that maybe two lost people might find each other not by accident? Maybe lost people will find each other by fate.”[/pink] And then Aiko’s pale face crumpled. [pink]“Is it wrong for me to think that?”[/pink] she asked him.

[sahoni]

Sahoni thought for a second. "No, not at all." he said. "I believe that everything happens for a reason. Wether the reason is good or bad is determined by our actions."
He looked at her and smiled.
"If you want I could try and make a fire with those sticks in the corner." he said with a scarlet blush on his tanned skin.
"Keep us warm..." he said trying to change the subject quickly.
He was shy.
"Life is a series of encounters and reactions."

[Aiko]

Aiko smiled when Sahoni did. He had a nice smile, all big and honest-looking, and it flooded through her like warmth. Just seeing that grin was what allowed the petite teen girl to smile in response. As if his words had been a cue, she ran her fingers through her messy, sopping hair, and felt cold points of water where she combed them out. She had been feeling too sorry for herself to better take care when she had first come to the cave, but Sahoni’s presence awakened some of her old spirit.

[pink]“A fire?”[/pink] Aiko echoed, pausing in her hair-cleaning work. For the first time, she noticed the dead, still-dry wood in the corner of the cave. [pink] “Can you make a fire?”[/pink] she asked, hardly daring to believe it was possible. Did Sahoni have one of those striking rocks that gave off sparks? Or was he maybe one of those magical people who could conjure up fire at will? Aiko had hardly dared, when she had wished for company, to hope for a fire, as well. It sure would dry off her clammy, waterlogged clothes better than she could on her own. Light brown eyes, which were still red around the rims from the crying, scanned the boy’s face, openly curious. Aiko scooted a little closer to Sahoni, and as she did so, she thought she heard him say something, but she missed what it was.

[pink]“What was that?”[/pink] she asked, licking her cold lips as she settled a couple feet away from Sahoni, pulling her knees up again because she was cold. She was delighted to find that the vest was big enough that she could pull it around her legs, too.

[sahoni]

Sahoni nodded preparing the wood. "Life is a series of encounters and reactions. Each linking to each other, though we may not see it, like a divine oversoul. Thus all life is connected." he said. He looked upon the wet girl, she was pretty but he had more pressing concerns. Takeing a lighter he flicked it twice with just sparks then he produced flame. "There" he said happy at the small flame.

[Aiko]

All the while Sahoni was talking, little Aiko paid close attention. She bobbed her head in agreement to what the boy was saying. Everything was connected? Like fate? That made sense. Aiko guessed she had sort of believed something like that all along, but hearing somebody say it, she felt like she was learning it like it was brand new. As Sahoni talked and got the wood ready, the girl subconsciously rubbed her knees, for even though there was clothing on top of them, she could feel the goose bumps she had through the fabric. She was in the middle of shivering as a flame suddenly flicked to life.

With a gasp, Aiko jumped a little, which caused her to fall over backwards. Her head collided with the hard stone of the cave floor. [pink] “Ack!”[/pink] Sitting up, the small-statured teenager saw that a little fire was crackling on the dead wood. It was the merriest thing she had seen in a long time. It made her start smiling all over again. Rocking back into a sitting position, Aiko found herself being drawn towards the warmth generated by the small blaze. Immediately, she felt little pinpricks of pain peppering her face, but she didn’t care. It was only the feeling that was returning to her nerves, after she’d been numb from cold for so long. Instead of dwelling on how her skin was starting to hurt, the girl turned to the boy with her earth-colored eyes wide. [pink]“How’d you do that, Sahoni-san?”[/pink] she whispered, awestruck. [pink]“Was it magic?”[/pink]

Then, remembering something Sahoni had said earlier, Aiko couldn’t resist asking some more questions. [pink]“And what’s an oversoul? And what’s a school? Are they magic, too?”[/pink]

[sahoni]

Sahoni laughed, it was a deep hearty one, uncharacteristic to his body, like it belonged to someone bigger. Her questions were odd. There was no doubt in his mind. He was in the past.
He tossed her the metal flip-top lighter. "This isn't magic, It's like flint and tender." He said. "An oversoul is the belief that all life is part of something bigger. " He laughed again he loved to teach he stared into her brown eyes.
"School is a place where you learn about a lot of things, like history n' stuff." his white t-shirt clung to his skin.

[Aiko]

[pink]What a funny little thing![/pink] Aiko thought as she struggled to catch the device that Sahoni tossed to her. She fumbled and dropped it. The thing clattered to the stony ground, but the girl was quick to grab it up again. She held it close to her nose as she stared at it cross-eyed, trying to understand it better. [pink]It doesn’t look much like flint and tender,[/pink] she thought to herself. [pink]Well maybe, since it kinda looks like a rock…[/pink] She scratched at the surface with a nail. When that yielded nothing, Aiko looked back up to the boy.

[pink]“School,”[/pink] she repeated, her voice a lighter, much more feminine echo to Sahoni’s. [pink]“So is this a school now?”[/pink] she asked seriously. Here, she had been learning a lot of new things from this stranger. She learned new words like “oversoul” and “school,” and she learned about this strange little device that wasn’t actually magic. As she thought about it again, she absentmindedly returned her attention to the odd device. How did it work, anyway? How did he make the fire come out? She had sort of missed exactly what he’d done. Curious, she banged it on a rock next to her foot.

[sahoni]

"Hey hey hey." he said with a laugh. He grabbed it "Watch closely..." he opened the top of the silver box. first place your finger here press down and..." he made another flame. "See?" he said "And I guess in a way its a school." he laughed again. It was nice to get his mind off home. His silvery pendent swung out, eyes seeming luminescent.

[Aiko]

Had she done something wrong? Aiko had the little fire-maker, which is what she’d call it from now on, taken away from her. Then Sahoni was showing her how to make fire. This time, she knew better than to jump away from it. Instead, she peered at it closely, intensely curious. [pink]“Let me try!”[/pink] she asked eagerly, snatching the fire-maker away from the boy. She closed it, then flipped it open and pressed it the way that the boy had. A flame flickered into existence. Aiko laughed, feeling triumphant, and the tiny fire flickered in the wake of her breath. [pink]“I did it!”[/pink] she said happily. Then she realized that she’d snatched the fire-maker without really asking. The girl quickly handed the fire-maker back to Sahoni. [pink]“Oops, sorry. I didn’t mean to take it like that, I just got excited and… sorry.”[/pink] Embarrassed, she averted her gaze from the boy, instead looking with fabricated interest at the bigger fire he’d made. Very deliberately, she held up still-clammy palms to the dry heat from the blaze. She was feeling the effects of the fire drying her, prickling her skin, everywhere where its light touched her.